4 Key Decisions: Artist

Our band name, Sticky and The Melonheads, was decided after Juliette had suggested it during a group meeting (her father having made a joke about naming the band). We thought that the name was a perfect fit for our band, as it is quirky and has a very indie feel to it, similar to that of Smashing Pumpkins (rock) and Catfish and The Bottlemen (indie rock). We came to the decision that our band was going to be an indie band because our core target audience are indie fans, with our record label being an indie label, and the track being of the indie-pop genre, so it made sense for us to construct an indie band.

We decided that our band would have two men and two women based on the fact that our group has three girls and one boy, so while three of us were playing the band, at least one of us would be behind the camera. The lead boy would also play the character in the couple through the ages, as it made sense with the lyrics because he is talking about the woman, and also because it reduces the number of external actors needed. Also, we decided a mixed gender band would be good as there are fewer of those than all-male bands, but mixed gender bands are still quite popular, so while we meet a gap in the market, there is a shown demand for it.

Band line-up:
Audrey - Guitar
Chrystal - Bass
Brandon - Drummer
External actor - Lead singer

The band members were decided based upon a group discussion of who wanted to play each roles. Audrey and Chrystal said they would feel most comfortable playing guitar and bass in the band, and I'd prefer to be the drummer rather than the lead singer for various reasons, i.e. for comfortability and brand image, so we agreed on getting an external actor to play the lead singer, and Juliette would play the lead girl.

Band Inspiration

In order to get an idea of what image we wanted to construct for the band, we researched bands of a similar genre, such as Everything Everything, San Cisco and Daughter. We found that most of the bands have quite a casual look, with skinny jeans and often bright t-shirts/dresses. Figure 1 shows this, with the entire band wearing t-shirts/shirts, looking very casual.